Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
Edsger Dijkstra
As Will Rogers would have said, "There is no such thing as a free variable."
Alan J. Perlis
You can have a negative percent chance of succeeding in a task. For example, if you have a -5% chance of succeeding, not only will you fail every time you make an attempt, you will also fail 1 in 20 times that you don't even try.
Anonymous
Whereas Europeans generally pronounce my name the right way ('Nick-louse Veert'), Americans invariably mangle it into 'Nickel's Worth.' This is to say that Europeans call me by name, but Americans call me by value.
Niklaus Wirth
Symmetry is a complexity-reducing concept (co-routines include subroutines); seek it everywhere.
Alan J. Perlis
Functions delay binding; data structures induce binding. Moral: Structure data late in the programming process.
Alan J. Perlis
C++: an octopus made by nailing extra legs onto a dog.
Steve Taylor
We kid ourselves if we think that the ratio of procedure to data in an active data-base system can be made arbitrarily small or even kept small.
Alan J. Perlis
The proof of a system's value is its existence.
Alan J. Perlis
One who works with their hands is a laborer.
Anonymous
One who works with their hands and their mind is a craftsman.
One who works with their hands, mind and heart is an artist.